ANCIENT RUINS IN SON OR A, MEXICO. 375 
ARCHEOLOGY. 
ANCIENT RUINS IN SONORA, MEXICO. 
Ancient ruins have recently been discovered in Sonora, which, if reports are 
true, surpass anything of the kind yet found on this continent. The ruins are said 
to be about four leagues southeast of Magdalena. There is one pyramid which has 
a base of 1,350 feet, and rises to the height of 750 feet; there is a winding road- 
way from the bottom leading up on an easy grade to the top, wide enough for 
carriages to pass over, said to be twenty-three miles in length ; the outer walls of 
the roadway are laid in solid masonry, huge blocks of granite in rubble work, and 
the circles are as uniform and the grade as regular as they could be made at this 
date by our best engineers. The wall is only occasionally exposed, being covered 
over with debris and earth, and in many places the sahuaro and other indigenous 
plants and trees have grown up, giving the pyramid the appearance of a moun- 
tain. To the east of the pyramid a short distance is a small mountain, about the 
same size, which rises about the same height, and if reports are true, will it prove 
more interesting to the archseologist than the pyramid. 
There seems to be a heavy layer of species of gypsum about half way up the 
mountain, which is as white as snow, and may be cut into any conceivable shape, 
yet sufficiently hard to retain its shape after being cut. In this layer of stone a 
people of an unknown age have cut hundreds upon hundreds of rooms from 6x10 
to 16x18 feet square. These rooms are cut out of the solid stone, and so even 
and true are the walls, floor and ceihngs to plumb and level as to defy variation. 
There are no windows in the rooms and but one entrance, which is always from 
the top. The rooms are about eight feet high from floor to ceiling ; the stone is 
so white that it seems almost transparent, and the rooms are not at all dark. 
On the walls of these room are numerous hieroglyphics and representations 
of human forms with hands and feet of human beings cut in the stone in different 
places. But, strange to say, all the hands have five fingers and thumb, and the 
feet have six toes. Charcoal is found on the floors of many of the rooms, which 
would indicate that they built fires in their houses. Stone implements of every 
description are to be found in and about the rooms. The houses or rooms are 
one above the other to three or more stories high ; but between each story there 
is a jog or recess the full width of the room below, so that they present the ap- 
pearance of large steps leading up the mountain. 
Who those people were, what age they lived in, must be answered, if 
answered at all, "by the wise men of the east." Some say that they were an- 
cestors of the Mayas, a race of Indians who still inhabit southern Sonora, who 
have blue eyes, fair skin and light hair, and are said to be a moral, industrious, 
